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  Europa here, I’ll be writing this one, even if I told him all about it, he insisted that I should be a ‘first hand source’

  I swear he’s become such a stickler about that stuff…

  Either way, I’ll explain it to the best of my memory, with the help of Loss, look at his little mark just below this.

  Narration by: Great God of Loss, Preservation of Stories

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  There was a girl born during The Wrath, from the moment she was born she had been unlucky, so much so that her brothers and sister had given the name black-cat, but isn’t it wolves that howl at the moon?

  She took short breaths and seemed to blink only rarely, even as a baby she had bloodshot eyes and a mean glare, her family thought she had a disease. But it was much worse, partially my fault too, it was a curse. She wasn’t alone, her blood-brother was cursed as well, in much more pain, his agony was at time audible, he was always suffering for some reason that no one else could comprehend, honestly, the girl hated her brother….

  He was supposed to be her older brother, her protecter, someone she could look up to, but he was nothing but a shambling mess, a gaunt pile of muscles that cradled is head in his hands at every opportunity, failing to hold back his screams. Everyone told her that he had always been like that, and to not try to get in his way… it was horrible, to see everyone’s look of pity as he entered the room, when he joined the family for meals they went silent, no one wanting to mention his poor table manners or constant crying. The girl understood her brother was suffering, but…

  She couldn’t bring herself to care.

  As far as she was concerned he was nothing but a nuisance, someone that her family only kept around because they felt sorry for him, during The Wrath, having an extra mouth to feed was a burden. It didn’t help that he was the worst to look at, the brightest light of all that burned her cursed eyes until the image of him never left her sight… her mother, her father, her brothers and sisters, they all were too bright. When the girl went outside, her siblings protected her, save for her blood-brother, who was locked away for his own safety. Without him she felt free, free to play, to roam, unaware of the effects of The Wrath, when she looked over the horizon she saw all the little lights disappearing, she was happy.

  The good times would not last forever though, her brothers and sisters all started to leave, one by one they left her alone. Eventually, she only had her blood-brother, and her parents, they were sick, and his suffering only seemed to grow in frequency and volume, sometimes his screams would make the ground shake… as The Wrath drew closer… The sky had become a sickly shade of pain, clouds being the wounds that rained blood and tainted feathers of Those of the Gods. Dark fog and swirls of evil wind took the lives of all that they passed, consuming life and spitting out viscera, making people into stains. Golden spears struck the ground, pillars of stone crashing into the ground, flattening everything, the creatures that lurked in the dark, marching forever towards humanity. The world had truly been turned downward.

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  The word her parents had used to describe it was “Hell.”

  One day a man came by, Jupiter had brought him here at some point, saying he would fix our curses…

  Nothing was truly fixed, just put away in a box with a flimsy lock, but… to me, it meant the world. That day, Jupiter took me away, The Wrath in its final years, my parents stayed behind at the family home, my brothers and sisters went their separate ways, they were all much older and stronger than I was, they would be fine, but… my brother also had to be protected. I never looked back though, I never knew were he went, for all I knew he was dead the moment he left our home, someone like that could never survive on their own.

  Jupiter was her savior, everyone seemed so bright, but he was different…

  Just like the comforting blind spot in her vision… he was a great black void that swallowed up the light, but only when you got close… she never had seen him without his glow, except when he was by her side. It was her one pride, the only reason she hadn’t torn out her eyes, she was the only one that could see the darkness in Jupiter that made her feel safe, something that would shelter from the world that was much too bright, her eyes could rest.

  And so, for the first time in her life she had peaceful sleep in the arms of humanity’s true guardian, Jupiter. The one man who could rightfully be called the savior of the people, all the life in the world owed him a debt of gratitude that they would never be able to pay back. The only person that had let the girl think like she could rest, that she didn’t have this burden of sight.

  The was no one else that could sit in the shoulders of Jupiter like this, that brought her comfort.

  That girl felt lucky for the first time in her life, lucky that she knew.

  That girl knew where Jupiter’s name came from, and she thought it fit him perfectly.

  Elias.

  That was the story that Europa had told me.

  It was hard to hear her describe everything, I couldn’t help but get mad at the blood-brother, if it were me I have to believe I would push through the pain to protect my sister, if I had one… But I understood that I couldn’t change the past, and it’s impressive enough that she was able to survive The Wrath, I didn’t know how much older I was than her but I must have done it as well…

  That gave us something in common at least, maybe that was why she was so harsh on me… sorry but I don’t remember how I survived it, maybe I hid in a hole the whole time… That was the least of my worries though, learning of my past wouldn’t help my current situation, despite how much I wanted to know, I needed to learn everything else first. There would be no changing the world with me as I am now, I am sure Jupiter knew that as well.

  “What do think of the story? I think it’s rather sad, maybe I had been too harsh.” Europa sighed as she leaned her back against me, as I finished the bandage on her head, to her specifications of not messing with her hair… “I was sad, but that just shows how great of a person Jupiter is! I can’t imagine anyone else helping you in a situation like that…” I took care to not move too much, trying not to disturb the wound on her head, perhaps my armor was cold and felt good to press to an area with pain.

  “I don’t think he’d like you saying that, I don’t know if you picked up on it but he doesn’t much care for praise… he wouldn’t even let me thank him after he saved me.” She looked up at me, the bridge of her glasses falling just low enough that I could see her eyes from this angle, and tried my best not to look away… “You know I’m sorry for being mean to you before, I guess I just haven’t had many good experiences with dense people like you… hah.” She hit and elbow against my chest and just slid down, now just resting her head in my lap, looking at the ceiling of the tent.

  “Am I really that dense?”

  “Yes, yes you are…”